Free Media Smuggled to North Korea by Balloon
Civilian groups shine a little light across the border
A giant hydrogen balloon catches the wind and floats swiftly upwards. The balloon travels 26 kilometers in total. It passes minefields, barbed wire, and steep mountains before releasing its payload on the lesser-known side of the world's most militarized border: information from the outside world. Pamphlets scatter in the air and flutter down to the ground, where ideally they will find their way into the hands of a curious North Korean villager.
This is communication with North Korea: balloons equipped with GPS trackers, shortwave radio transmissions, and smuggled DVDs of South Korean soap operas. For the most part, these communications enter an information black hole with no feedback.
North Korea remains one of the most isolated countries on the planet. However, in the past five years, the flow of information in and out of the country has dramatically increased. This is, in part, due to the efforts of a myriad of civilian groups in South Korea.
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?